"Computer," Scout called out.
The computer beeped in response waiting for further input.
"Initiate warp drive at point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one percent of maximum output. Create a localized warp bubble around the hull. Engage spatial distortion field to compress the surrounding metric, allowing micro-jumps through structural matter without physical collision. Override safety interlocks on bubble integrity and feedback loops. Route auxiliary power through the core to maintain stability."
"Warning: warp drive activation at sub-threshold velocity risks temporal shear. Bubble collapse probability at eighty-seven percent. Structural integrity of surrounding matter not guaranteed. Recommend immediate abort."
"Override," Scout said, ignoring the cascade of alerts. "Engage now."
The ship rocked violently, consoles sparking as the warp drive hummed to life at a crawl, the bubble forming around the Vengeance like an invisible skin. Reality warped, space folding in on itself, the corridor outside enlarging as the warp bubble manipulated the fabric of space. The hull groaned, systems straining and panels sparked and exploded, but Scout compensated, adjusting power flows manually, her hands blurring over the panels. "Hold together, you beauty."
"Feedback loop detected. Core temperature rising. Evacuate or—"
"Shut up!" Scout yelled, rerouting coolant lines. The ship lurched forward, the warp bubble enveloping the corridor ahead, durasteel walls rippling like water as the Vengeance "slid" through without touching, space itself enlarging and bendinb to accommodate the intrusion. She almost laughed, the sound bubbling up manically as the ship inched along, alarms screaming failure after failure—shields fluctuating, inertial dampeners offline—but it worked.
Scout gripped the yoke tighter, sweat dripping down her face as she guided the ship forward, the deck vibrating under her feet. "Come on, come on, just a little more."
...
Vaylin channeled everything she had left into her assault, her broken body screaming as she surged forward, rage igniting her veins like liquid fire. She unleashed a torrent of lightning from both hands, the blue arcs forking toward Sidious in a web that lit the chamber, but he raised his hands and absorbed the energy and drank the power before he flung it back at her in a concentrated bolt that scorched her body and drove her to one knee. She did not stop, calling on the dark side to rip up the entire deck plating beneath him, jagged sheets tearing free and hurtling toward him like battering rams; he laughed and swept his free hand, redirecting the metal barrage back at her, forcing her to dive aside as plates embedded in the wall behind her with thunderous impacts that buckled the structure and sent cracks spidering across the ceiling.
She rolled and thrust her saber upward, aiming for his chest, but he parried with ease and countered with a slash that grazed her thigh, the blade searing flesh as she twisted away; she responded by Force-gripping a fallen beam and swinging it like a club toward his head, the metal whistling through the air, but he shattered it mid-swing with a focused crush, fragments exploding outward and embedding in her arm like shrapnel that drew blood and made her gasp. Vaylin pressed on, her strikes a frenzy of overhead chops and spinning sweeps that he blocked each time, the clashes sending vibrations up her arms until her muscles burned, yet she poured more power into a Force push that lifted him off his feet and hurled him into a cluster of control panels, consoles erupting in sparks and flames that licked at his cloak as he landed amid the wreckage.
Sidious rose without a mark, his grin widening as he felt the dark side swell within her, feeding on her fury like a flame on dry tinder. "Yes, feed it. Let the rage consume you as it should," he said, but Vaylin roared and leaped at him, her saber coming down in a two-handed arc that he met with his own, the blades locking as she drove him back step by step, her strength amplified by the hate boiling in her chestl and she broke the lock, following with a slash across his shoulder that made him hiss.
He straightened and erupted in a Force shockwave, the invisible blast radiating outward like a star's corona, slamming into Vaylin with concussive power that lifted her off her feet and threw her back through the air, her body crashing into a bulkhead that dented under the impact and knocked the breath from her lungs as she slid down the wall, ribs cracking from the force.
Sidious walked toward her slowly, his saber at his side, and raised both hands; she felt the grip tighten around her arms, bones fracturing with twin cracks that echoed in the chamber, pain exploding through her shoulders as her limbs went limp, useless at her sides.
"Disappointing," he said, his voice dripping with mock pity as he loomed over her. "If this is all you can muster now, then my creation has truly failed. I expected a rival, not this broken shell."
Vaylin roared through the agony, her vision blurring with tears of rage, and used the Force to hurl her lightsaber toward Sidious like a spear aimed at his heart and throat. He watched them come and looped them back with a casual wave, the weapon reversing mid-air and plunging into her leg, the lightsaber piercing her thigh and pinning her to the deck as she screamed, the pain white-hot and immobilizing, her body spasming from the shock until she deactivated it.
Darth Sidious knelt beside her. "I thought you might become a rival, Tenebra. A true heir to the Sith legacy, shattering empires at my side before claiming your own. But look at you now pinned like an insect, begging for mercy you will not receive. All that potential, wasted on these fools. Jaden's crew? They soften you, make you weak. And for what? A Jedi who lies dead?"
He laughed, the sound rolling deep from his chest, and unleashed the Force as a vice around her chest, squeezing until her ribs creaked and air fled her lungs, her vision spotting as she gasped and clawed at nothing. He released just enough for her to breathe, then tightened again, alternating the torment with grips on her mind, probing her thoughts to look for her memories of Teth, of the merging, of the friends she now fought for, twisting them into visions of their deaths; Jaden impaled, Aubrie crushed, Scout torn apart, each one a knife in her psyche that made her writhe and scream.
But the torture stopped abruptly as Master Fay staggered forward, her hand outstretched, and unleashed a Force push that caught Sidious off-guard, slamming him back across the chamber into a row of crates that splintered and collapsed under him. Fay clutched her stomach where the saber wound still smoked, but she held her stance, her blue saber reigniting in her good hand as she moved to Vaylin's side.
"Vaylin," Fay whispered, kneeling despite the pain that made her vision swim, her free hand pressing against the young woman's shoulder to check her injuries. Vaylin spasmed under the touch, her body convulsing from the impalement and mind torture, her breaths ragged gasps that prevented words, only a choked whimper escaping as tears streaked her face.
Sidious rose from the wreckage, brushing debris from his cloak with a chuckle that built into full laughter. "Amusing, isn't it? How the weak congregate, clustering like vermin in the hope that numbers will save them. Yet despite it all, you are all still squashed under my boot. Jedi and Sith alike."
He raised both hands and unleashed Force lightning again, twin streams forking toward them in a deadly arc. Fay stepped in front of Vaylin and caught the lightning with her bare hands, the energy coiling around her palms as she absorbed it through Tutaminis, her body shaking from the effort. Sidious's eyes widened in surprise, but he poured more into the attack, the lightning intensifying until Fay's knees buckled, smoke rising from her flesh.
She pushed back, channeling some of the energy outward in a redirected bolt that went back through the stream. They clashed like this, Fay sending portions back at him while he redoubled the assault, the air crackling with ozone as the two streams warred, neither yielding fully, the station groaning under the strain of their power.
But suddenly the corridor began to warp then, space folding unnaturally as the Vengeance appeared, its hull materializing in the passage with the ramp already down and Scout standing at the edge, waving frantically. Sidious's eyes narrowed, but he was not about to let them go; he unleashed more Force lightning, making her body trembling as she held the barrier, sweat mixing with blood on her face.
"Run," Fay urged Vaylin. "Escape. Now."
Vaylin pushed herself up on shaking arms, pain lancing through her with every movement, and considered it. The temptation pulled at her, but in the end she could only do one thing. She lifted her broken arm with a grunt of effort, the Force responding through the pain, and threw Master Fay into the ship with Scout, the Jedi's body sailing through the air to land on the ramp where Scout caught her, pulling her inside.
"Pointless..." Sidious commented before he went to shoot a powerful stream of force lighting at the ship.
Vaylin jumped in the way and took the full brunt of the Force lightning then, the energy slamming into her like a storm, coiling around her body and burning through her, her scream echoing as she held it back with one hand, the other reaching out to Force-push the Vengeance out of the station. The ship lurched forward, space warping around it as it accelerated, tearing through bulkheads in a chain of explosions that ripped the station apart, hull breaches venting atmosphere into the vacuum, the structure fracturing like glass under the strain.
"Goodbye," Vaylin said as she stopped fighting, her voice a whisper lost in the roar. "My friends."
Before she let the lightning consume her, her body arching as the power overwhelmed her, but she held just long enough for the ship to escape, the station crumbling behind it in a cascade of fire and debris, drifting toward the sun as Vaylin's scream faded into silence.
...
Scout flew into the ceiling as the inertial dampers failed, her head cracking against a panel that sparked and sent pain exploding through her skull. She bounced off and slammed into a wall, her shoulder hitting hard enough to jar her arm, but she grabbed a handhold and held on as the ship spun out of control, the deck tilting wildly beneath her.
"Warp bubble has collapsed."
"Microfractures detected in hull integrity."
"Danger warp core breach."
"Danger warp core breach."
The repeat hammered her ears, each word syncing with the ship's violent rolls that made her stomach lurch. She broke a rib as she slammed into a pipe jutting from the bulkhead, the pain made her gasp and curl inward for a moment. She hung on, her fingers white-knuckled around the bar, her breaths coming short as the ship whirled, corridors blurring past in a disorienting spin that made her almost want to throw up.
"Computer," she shouted hoarsely. "Disengage artificial gravity!"
The artificial gravity cut off, and Scout floated free, the sudden weightlessness making her drift upward as the ship continued to tumble. She pushed off the wall with her feet, propelling herself through the corridor, her body bouncing lightly off panels as she oriented toward the engine room. She grabbed a conduit to steady herself, pulling her body along hand over hand, the pain in her rib stabbing with every twist.
She reached the engine room, which filled with smoke that stung her eyes and plasma fires that licked at exposed wires, the flames dancing in zero-g like slow-motion tendrils. "Kriff," she said, coughing as she waved a hand to clear the haze, her lungs burning from the acrid scent that clawed her throat.
She pushed herself to the warp core, the massive chamber pulsing with energy, red lights flashing warnings across its surface as coolant hissed from fractured lines. She grabbed the access panel and yanked it open, sparks showering her face as she exposed the core's manuel controls. "Hold together," she muttered rerouting power from auxiliary batteries to stabilize the breach. The core groaned, a low whine building as fractures spiderwebbed the containment field, but she isolated the failing section, venting plasma into space through emergency ports that vented the smoke in a rush.
"Warning: collision with celestial body in five minutes."
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Scout said, her hands freezing on the console as the words sank in. She slammed the shutdown sequence, the warp core powering down with a final shudder, the bubble collapsing completely and leaving the ship inert. She pushed away from the core, floating past the open ramp, she felt a pang of pain as she watched the station be consumed by the sun, the hull glowing red then white as it sank into the plasma, fracturing in silent bursts that lit the void. "Vaylin," she whispered, her voice breaking, the name hanging in the weightless air like a ghost. She was gone now, sacrificed to buy them time, and Scout could not shake the guilt, the what-ifs piling up as tears floated free in the zero-g.
But she could not think about her friend at the moment as she needed to save everyone else. She pushed off a bulkhead and floated toward the cockpit, her rib protesting with every jolt, the ship still tumbling without dampeners. She grabbed the pilot's chair and strapped in, fingers flying over the controls to reroute emergency power to the sublight engines. "Come on, you stubborn heap," she muttered, overriding safeties on the thrusters, patching in the auxiliary generators that hummed to life with a reluctant growl.
The engines caught, stuttering at first, but she coaxed them online, adjusting fuel lines and ignition sequences manually through the console, sweat beading on her forehead as she ignored the numerous of errors. She fired the bow thrusters to counter the spin, the ship lurching as it stabilized, then throttled the mains, the Vengeance shuddering as it blasted away from the sun's pull, the corona receding in the viewport, the heat fading from the hull.
She leaned back in the chair panting as she finally took a breath, her rib throbbing with each breath, hands shaking from the adrenaline crash. The alarms quieted, leaving only the ship's creaks and her ragged inhales. But then the comms crackled, a voice booming through the speakers.
"Unidentified ship, lower your shields and prepare to be tractored. This is the Republic Cruiser Valiant."
"I repeat lower your shields now."
Scout looked at the ship spitefully, the massive wedge-shaped behemoth filling the viewport, its hangar bays yawning open like a predator's maw, tractor beams glowing blue as they locked on.
"Republic reinforcements... always on time."
(AN: Woooo we are done, finally. I hate these kind of chapters as they are importent but also not? Meh it's hard and I did end up rushing things which sucks but at least I didn't take a massively long time with it and can now move on to the next chapters and go back to the main story. Anyway how many of you thought Master Fay was actually going to die?)
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